The 1970's was a tumultuous time. US President Richard Nixon was impeached and forced to resign from office in 1974 after the revelations of the Watergate scandal became public. We experienced the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
In 1973, America was held hostage to a middle east oil crisis and Disco Music exploded with Donna Summer reigning as Disco Queen in the mid to late 1970's. In 1977, ‘Saturday Night Fever’ made a star of John Travolta and rolled on to become a huge commercial hit. Novelist Tom Wolfe referred to the 1970's as the ‘Me decade’ or as the ‘Third Great Awakening.’
“The hippie culture which started in the latter half of the 1960's, waned by the early 1970's and faded towards the middle part of the decade, which involved opposition to the Vietnam War, opposition to nuclear weapons, the advocacy of world peace, and hostility to the authority of government and big business. The environmentalist movement began to increase dramatically in this period.” - Wikipedia.com
The Black Arts Movement was born.
In 1971, underground independent African American Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles released ‘Sweet Sweetback's Baadassssss Song,’ from a modest budget of $150,000 and went on to gross an amazing $10 Million dollars. Van Peebles not only directed, scripted, and edited the film, but also wrote the score and directed the marketing campaign. A prolific and diverse Artist, Van Peebles in that same year also directed his hit Broadway play ‘Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death’ (he wrote the musical book and score.)
Time Magazine describes the Black Arts Movement as the “single most controversial moment in the history of African-American literature – possibly in American literature as a whole.” The Black Arts Repertory Theatre is a key institution of the Black Arts Movement. The movement was one of the most important times in the African-American literature. It inspired black people to establish their own publishing houses, magazines, journals and art institutions. According to the Academy of American Poets, “many Writers — Native Americans, Latinos / Latinas, gays and lesbians, and younger generations of African -Americans have acknowledged their debt to the Black Arts movement.”
The Black Arts Movement, although short, is essential to the history of the United States. It spurred political activism and use of speech throughout every African-American community. It allowed African-Americans the chance to express their voices in the mass media as well as becoming involved in communities. It was within this context that in 1974 Bob Bryan created, organized and published IMPRESSIONS Magazine of the Arts. Mr. Bryan's indie publishing house was located in the epicenter of the Black Arts Movement, 145th & Lenox Avenue in Harlem. |
“My life and career is defined by the constant pursuit of new forms of culture and self-expression.” - Melvin Van Peebles |
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